


snapshots (of a time not forgotten)

by Faetality



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-11-06 08:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17935901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faetality/pseuds/Faetality
Summary: A collection of short drabbles centered around Klaus, Dave, and other miscellaneous characters from The Umbrella Academy.





	1. worth staying for (Klaus/Dave)

“You have the most beautiful eyes.” 

“Oh, _stop._ ” 

“It’s true. You’re  _ unfairly  _ pretty. Too pretty to be in this hellhole.” Fingers were tracing his cheekbone, down to the jaw where stubble was growing too long for his taste and where there was dirt smudged from the day’s trek. Klaus can’t stop smiling. 

“ _ Stop _ it.” Three months. It had only been three months and here he was,  _ in love.  _ It was ridiculous. “You’re going to make me blush.” 

“Good.” 

They were lucky, lucky to have lived through the day and luckier still to have managed a tent to themselves. Klaus leans in to press their lips together in an almost gentle kiss. It’s nothing like any kiss he’s ever given anyone in his life. 

“Do that again.” He was so secretive about it. Not about them, though they never said a word about that either; it was an unspoken secret that everyone pretended not to know- but about what he  _ wanted.  _ He hardly dared ask for such simple things as a kiss. It was endearing in the extreme. Klaus wanted to shower him in affection, to take him far far away from bullets and bombs- but he wouldn’t go. No no no, he was too brave and strong and hard-headed about such things as  _ honor.  _ And yet… and yet he was so very  _ kind.  
_ Always so very kind and in the dark of the night in a foreign place and foreign time he kissed as though Klaus might just be something precious.

 

That was something worth staying for. 


	2. "He's hitting the self destruct button like a rat in a cage" Five & Klaus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tua prompt: 5 watches Klaus smash a snowglobe over his own head with barely a flinch and instead of just thinking “damn my brother can actually be kinda street smart useful” also thinks “shit this boy is hitting the self destruct button even harder than we realised” and decides he’ll be his next project after the apocalypse sorted

It’s only when glitter and glass sprays across the desk and blood trickles it’s way down Klaus’ forehead that he realizes that he may have miscalculated just how deep into the shit his brother had fallen. Maybe. What had once been a bad habit to cover up a shaky fear had clearly spun out of control while they weren’t looking. The humor and eccentricism that was firmly Klaus had distracted them from the underlying issues- he wasn’t just breaking the glass on the big red button, he was crashing and burning straight into it.

If they survived the apocalypse, and Five was quite certain that they would survive, he would have to fix Klaus next. That seemed like a sufficient challenge. In the meantime, his brother was getting him exactly where he needed to be.

Afterward, when the information had led him right back into another dead end he considers where to go next. With Klaus sitting beside him on the steps of a building he was never going be allowed back into he considers the new variables. Stares down at the eye of the man who was going to kill them all, then back at his brother and makes his decision.

“Come on, Klaus, we have more work to do.”


	3. Future  Plans (p1.) Klaus/Dave

It hadn’t been a decision. Not really. It was a desperate attempt to save what they had between them. When he had pulled Dave into the woods and kissed him senseless, knowing the orders to move out could be the end of it. Nine months in Vietnam and yet it was better than a lifetime. He wanted a lifetime with Dave. 

“Would you run away with me?” It’s murmured between them like a proposal. 

“If there was somewhere to run I’d follow you anywhere.” 

“Then come with me. Let’s go somewhere else, somewhere new and safe and where we can just be.” There was no guarantee that Dave would believe him. Time traveling briefcase was a pretty big stretch for a poor boy in the sixties. Hell, it was a stretch for  _ Klaus  _ and he had  _ superpowers.  _

“We can’t jus’ go AWOL, baby. We don’t have anywhere to run.” 

“We do. I do. Come on, please.” And that was how they were going, knelt behind the canvas of the tent while somewhere else Brackett was laughing. “Klaus-“

“Trust me. Just trust me, Angel.” 

 

And that was how their story started anew. With flashing lights and the rumble of a city bus and delirious laughter when Klaus realized fully that they were  _ safe.  _ Yeah, there was still an apocalypse coming but… they were safe. Dave takes in the city in wonderstruck silence, shoulder pressed firm against Klaus’ own. He doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t do anything but lean against the older man and take it all in. Klaus takes the time to breathe. 

 

He drags Dave off the bus a block from the Hargreeves mansion, nervous and shaky and still ecstatic - refusing to let go of Dave’s hand the entire time despite the man’s whispered cry of “what if someone sees!”

“Let them! It’s okay here- I’m not going to let anything happen to you here, Dave. Trust me.” 

 

He hesitates at the door though, leaning in for a kiss before he can bring himself to touch the polished wood. “I love you.” His family could be a lot but there was no where else to go and they needed showers like fish need water. He lingers, lips almost touching as he considers the near future. But then Dave is cupping his cheek, like that night in Saigon and whispers,

“I love you too, sunshine.” And he could face anything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going to add on to this one in the future.


	4. 5+1 Nightmares  Klaus/Dave

In Vietnam there were a few times that his nightmares stood out. A few times when they nearly killed him and damn near saved him. There were a few times when he needed a hit so badly he would have killed for it. 

 

The first time he woke screaming it was to Bennet and Velazquez holding him down, a shirt over his mouth and begging him to be quiet. He’d calmed down pretty quickly when the trees took shape above him and distant gunfire hit. He was lucky that night. No enemies came down on them and no one said a word in the morning. He was lucky like that. 

 

The second time he woke gasping for breath with phantom hands on his skin. They were on base, settled for a two week stay and things were relaxed. He walked barefoot out the tent and found a pack of smokes to calm his shaking. Sooner rather than later he heard the choppers, when he ran for it, waking men up as he passed. It was then that the men started calling him lucky. When he was awake for the ambush. 

 

The third time. That was hard. He dreamed about Ben. He dreamed about blood and screaming and a voice that wasn’t there to tell him it was going to be okay when he woke up. He woke up alone. He woke up crying. He woke to a warzone and three men standing over his cot. Men he knew. Men with blood on their faces and holes in their skin. Men who had shared good and laughter with him not three days prior. He wanted his brother beside him. 

 

Velazquez was there for the fourth as well. When he woke without air in his lungs, scrambling for anything that might bring him back from the dark. The black haired man who looked too much like another brother he once knew; he was there when he had his hands wrapped around the edge of a bayonet without a thought. Was there to call him a crazy bastard and a right fool while wrapping his hands gently in gauze.

 

The fifth time was the worst. It was when he dreamed about blood on his hands and ash in his mouth. When lifeless eyes gazed blankly at the sky and screams pierced his ears. It was a dream of too small spaces and bars that wouldn’t move. The fifth time didn’t end when he opened his eyes. Bullets and fire all around him, men screaming and begging on both sides and the ground turned muddy by something thicker than water. 

The fifth time was when he decided nothing in his mind could be worse than the reality around him. 

  
  


Oh, how he was wrong. 

 

Dave was kind. He was strong and good and all the things Klaus wasn’t. He was patient and gentle. When Klaus saw the dead in his dreams it was Dave. It was Dave and Diego and Ben- but mostly it was Dave. The idea of losing him. Loving him. It was terrifying. It woke him in the early hours of the morning with his heart jackrabbiting and his body shaking.

It was Dave who he saw when he closed his eyes and Dave who he saw when he opened his eyes. It was his blood that filled his mouth. His love that filled his heart. His lifeless body that haunted his dreams. It was Dave he called for when he woke up in a bedroom with cars passing on the street. It was always Dave that hurt the most.

 

“Shh, shh baby. I got you. Breathe. In and out. That’s it. You’re doing good, breathe for me.” his hands were warm when they stroked his back, steady when they held his own. His voice was soft. “What did you see?” He shakes his head, ducks down into himself. “That’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it.” Dave just held him closer. Pressed lips to his temple and settled him back under the sheets. Dave who let him cling and lay his head over his heart. 

 

It’s with strong arms around him, a voice talking about the life they’re going to live, and a steady heartbeat in his ear that he realizes that his life. The reality he’d come to know now was good. That the nightmares were over in the waking world. 

It’s with Dave in his arms that he knows that he can start dreaming again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick Drabble I wrote while feeling down. Have some feels.

**Author's Note:**

> requests, prompts, and headcanons are welcome to be sent to my inbox @ faetxlity.tumblr.com


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